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The Two Worst Children's Books Ever Made, part two.
8 years ago
General
Okay, I cheated. This one technically isn't a children's book. It's a parenting book. (Really, I shouldn't even call it that.) But its just so awful, I think it needs to be mentioned here, given that, like the last entry, it also relates to being cruel to small children. Seriously, its the worst. Its a perfectly awful, horrible, disgusting, blasphemous piece of literature that deserves nothing less than to be eradicated from the face of the earth. If you ever find a copy, please, do us all a favor. Burn it. Preferably with gas. Yes, I, a librarian, am encouraging you to burn this book. What book could possibly be so awful? Let me introduce you to
To Train up a Child by Michael and Debi Pearl
I don't want to write about this. But I have to. Mr. and Mrs. Pearl are among that unique kind of pseudo-Christian known as a fundamentalist. They are of the opinion that not spanking your kids makes them vulnerable prey for "the gays" and "the feminazis." That is horrible enough by itself, but this book slowly evolves into a manual for child abusers. The Pearls think that you have to break a child's spirit to make them obedient to you, and that its morally acceptable to do so as long as you do it "lovingly."
Here are just a few of their suggestions-
Infants as young as 4 months should be whipped on the bare skin for crying too much.
Its okay to beat 2-year olds for the crime of not playing with something they were told to play with.
Never let the intenisty of your child's tears dissuade you from beating them further.
Ignore your children when they cry.
Let the neighborhood bullies beat your child up because that makes them tougher, somehow.
I'm not going any further. I can't. I won't. But I will say this much- the Pearls have boasted that they have not only done all of this to their own children, but have actively encouraged other like-minded non-parents to do the same. There are at least 625,000 copies in print as I type this. What's their motive? To suggest for an instant that the God of Love and Compassion, who loves small children more than anything else, could condone such evil is the worst kind of blasphemy!
But what's the harm, you ask? Well, besides the fact that there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of children who were traumatized beyond redemption by this horrible book, two other children died. Here's the worst- Lydia Schatz was severely beaten by her parents with a pipe. Several of Lydia's bones were broken, and she wound up dying from multiple organ failure in the hospital. Why? Because she had mispronounced a word her parents were teaching her. She was only 7 years old.
As a direct result of this, Lydia's father and mother were sentenced to 20 and 15 years in prison,respectively, and their parental rights were terminated. The Pearls, meanwhile, were investigated by Child Protective Services and later were convicted of child abuse for writing this book.
And on that note, I've had enough. I'm going to give my children a hug now.
http://awfullibrarybooks.net/train-up-your-child/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death.....f_Lydia_Schatz
To Train up a Child by Michael and Debi Pearl
I don't want to write about this. But I have to. Mr. and Mrs. Pearl are among that unique kind of pseudo-Christian known as a fundamentalist. They are of the opinion that not spanking your kids makes them vulnerable prey for "the gays" and "the feminazis." That is horrible enough by itself, but this book slowly evolves into a manual for child abusers. The Pearls think that you have to break a child's spirit to make them obedient to you, and that its morally acceptable to do so as long as you do it "lovingly."
Here are just a few of their suggestions-
Infants as young as 4 months should be whipped on the bare skin for crying too much.
Its okay to beat 2-year olds for the crime of not playing with something they were told to play with.
Never let the intenisty of your child's tears dissuade you from beating them further.
Ignore your children when they cry.
Let the neighborhood bullies beat your child up because that makes them tougher, somehow.
I'm not going any further. I can't. I won't. But I will say this much- the Pearls have boasted that they have not only done all of this to their own children, but have actively encouraged other like-minded non-parents to do the same. There are at least 625,000 copies in print as I type this. What's their motive? To suggest for an instant that the God of Love and Compassion, who loves small children more than anything else, could condone such evil is the worst kind of blasphemy!
But what's the harm, you ask? Well, besides the fact that there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of children who were traumatized beyond redemption by this horrible book, two other children died. Here's the worst- Lydia Schatz was severely beaten by her parents with a pipe. Several of Lydia's bones were broken, and she wound up dying from multiple organ failure in the hospital. Why? Because she had mispronounced a word her parents were teaching her. She was only 7 years old.
As a direct result of this, Lydia's father and mother were sentenced to 20 and 15 years in prison,respectively, and their parental rights were terminated. The Pearls, meanwhile, were investigated by Child Protective Services and later were convicted of child abuse for writing this book.
And on that note, I've had enough. I'm going to give my children a hug now.
http://awfullibrarybooks.net/train-up-your-child/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death.....f_Lydia_Schatz
Sickening. The only good thing I can think of about this is that the behavior this book encourages has garnered enough attention that at least some are pulling it from shelves, though I'm sure it's still available somewhere.